


Take It All

by scribdyke



Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: F/M, Gen, Idk I'll add more tags later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:35:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23978314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scribdyke/pseuds/scribdyke
Summary: Mercer Frey has very, very bad aim.
Relationships: Female Dovahkiin | Dragonborn/Vorstag
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	Take It All

The moment the ancient Nord door began to move, Vorstag knew something was wrong. Whether it was intuition, some kind of subtle indication he picked up on without realizing, or even godly influence, he had his hand on his sword before Mercer Frey stepped out of Snow Veil Sanctum with his own blades dripping blood and without Faedryl at his side. 

Mercer had not allowed him to accompany him and Faedryl into the Sanctum, citing his heavy armour as the reason. Before Faedryl had left with the Breton thief, Vorstag had taken her aside, first asking her not to go with him for fear that she would not come back out, and then requesting that she take care. 

“Where is she?” Vorstag demanded. “Where is Faedryl?”

Mercer’s words had no emotion when he responded. “Karliah killed her. The same way she killed Gallus.”

Vorstag’s grip on his hilt tightened, turning his knuckles as white as the snow falling around them. “Where’s the body, then?”

“I barely escaped with my life.” Mercer’s lip curled. “Do you think I had time to grab her corpse?”

“So you fled, then? Without fighting?”

“I would never have stood a chance against Karliah. Not if Faedryl couldn’t stand up to her.”

“Then why are your weapons bloodied? Draugr have no blood.” 

The Breton froze, some expression like fear slowly creeping over his gaunt face. “You’re too observant for your own good.”

It wasn’t an outright confession. But it might as well have been. 

“So you killed her.” His sword arm trembled. “Why? Why would you-?”

Then the realization hit him in the chest with blunt forcefulness. “Unless…you were the traitor all along...it was never the Dark Elf, it was you!”

“Damn it,” Mercer lifted one blade above his head and stretched the other in front of him. “You’re no ordinary dumb brute. Fine then. Yes. I killed Gallus and framed Karliah. And I killed Faedryl. And now...I’ll kill you too.”

“We’ll see about that.” Vorstag raised his shield. The idea that Faedryl had been slain so easily...he couldn’t buy it. He didn’t buy it. She had to be alive. He could feel it in his bones. And he had to find her. 

“Just because you’re smarter than the average hired help doesn’t make you stronger,” Mercer sneered. “Come on, then, boy! Try it!”

Vorstag lunged forward, and Mercer’s dagger, wet with Faedryl’s blood, clashed with his Dwarven sword. The Breton was light on his feet despite his age, dancing around the heavily armoured Nord with ease and almost immediately putting him on the defense. 

But Vorstag would not go down without taking Mercer alongside him. He fought like a wild animal, like a true Nord, meeting Mercer’s evil with brutality of his own. 

“I don’t think I’ve seen a mere mercenary behave like this for the sake of a dead master before,” Mercer noted with a sly smirk as he pushed back against Vorstag’s fury. “Is it possible that, perhaps, I’ve now ruined two young couples?”

Vorstag’s rapidly beating heart jolted. “Just because you feel nothing for those you work with-!”

“So you feel something, then?”

“I’ll kill you!”

There was no way that Mercer had successfully taken Faedryl. He couldn’t accept it. Someone like Mercer with no loyalties...he was twice Fae’s age, yet there was no way he was twice as strong as her. She was Dragonborn, even if she’d not fully unlocked that power. He couldn’t kill her. It was impossible. 

But Vorstag, he was not Dragonborn. He was not Faedryl. It wasn’t impossible that Mercer could kill him. 

And he realized that too late. Mercer wound his way behind him, striking him in a gap in his armour, and he fell forward with a gasp of pain. The snow softened his fall, but the cold powder seeped into his bones as the warm blood spread across his flesh. He tried to rise, only for Mercer to slam the flat side of his sword against the back of his head, and he collapsed again, the red he had seen slowly becoming black. 

“Farewell, then. I’d give Faedryl your regards, but…” Mercer’s voice trailed off with a laugh that echoed in Vorstag’s ringing ears as darkness overtook him. 

The next thing he knew, he was laying facedown on a bedroll, his armour gone, and his back sore. 

“You’re lucky,” said a deep, rich voice, and he lifted his head slightly to find a broad-shouldered, rough-skinned Dunmer woman crouched over a fire not far at all from where he lay. Her wide eyes were a dark, stunning violet, hardened from conflict but with a sad kindness underneath. “And before you ask...yes, I found her. She’s alive.”

“You must be…”

“Karliah. Yes. And I assume that you are the mercenary I overheard Mercer mention in Snow Veil. Faedryl’s hired hand?”

“She prefers to call me her bodyguard.” He pushed himself up into a sitting position. “She’s alive, right? I know she is.”

“I already told you she is,” said Karliah. She pointed with one bony, calloused finger and Vorstag followed the gesture to a second bedroll, atop which lay an unconscious Faedryl, her upper body and neck wrapped in bandages. “You should thank me. If it wasn’t for my poisoned arrow, she would have bled to death before I could have done anything.”

“And me? What made you save my life?”

“When I was waiting to ambush Mercer and Faedryl, I heard them arguing about a Nord mercenary she had hired. I assumed that he would probably want to dispose of you too.”

That didn’t quite answer his question, but he chose not to question her further. “He didn’t attack me. I attacked him.”

“Oh?”

“He tried to tell me that you had killed her. He didn’t account for the fact that his weapons had blood on them. Draugr don’t bleed and he said he hadn’t fought you.”

“You’re intuitive,” was all that Karliah said. 

“Only in certain ways. I like Dwemer machines and I’m observant in a fight, but I don’t know what’s going on with your Guild. I know Mercer killed your former Guildmaster now, but that’s about it. And I don’t care much, either. I just do what Faedryl needs me to do. That’s my job. That’s what she pays me for.”

“More than that,” Karliah suddenly broke eye contact. “You had no obligation to her if she was dead. But you chose to fight Mercer.”

“I knew she couldn’t be dead. I’m still in her employ.”

“Is that all there was to it?”

Despite the cold air, Vorstag’s face grew warm, and he changed the subject. “Did Mercer take my armour?”

“No, I have it. It’s just difficult to treat injuries with Dwarven armour in the way.”

“Good. Good. Faedryl wouldn’t be pleased...she’s the one who stole that.”

“An entire set of Dwarven armour?”

“Piece by piece.”

“Impressive.”

“She’s unparalleled at what she does. There’s no-one better.”

Karliah arched one of her high, thin brows. Her lips pursed as if she was about to speak, but she did not. Nor could she have- suddenly, Faedryl shot upright, reaching for her backup dagger, and almost immediately stumbled, nearly falling. Karliah placed a hand on her uninjured shoulder to support her. 

“Easy, easy. Don’t get up so quickly. How are you feeling?”

Faedryl looked around wildly, and then brandished her blade at Karliah. “You shot me!”

"No, I saved your life. My arrow was tipped with a unique paralytic poison. It slowed your heart and kept you from bleeding out. Had I intended to kill you, we wouldn't be having this conversation.”

“But-!”

“I also was kind enough to save your bodyguard.”

The Bosmer’s eyes went wide and she peered around Karliah to see Vorstag sitting with his legs politely crossed. “Vorstag? What happened to you?”

“Same thing that happened to you,” he said with a shrug, and she pushed Karliah aside to rush over to him, taking his face in her hands, and he noticed out of the corner of his vision that Karliah turned her back to them. 

“Was the armour not enough? I only give you the best I can find, do I need to steal some ebony or something?”

He sighed. “All metal armour has gaps, Fae. That’s how he got me.”

“Mercer?”

“Mmhm. I figured out that he’d tried to kill you, so I tried to kill him. It didn’t go very well.”

Her autumnal irises blazed. “I’ll have his head! It’s bad enough that he went and humiliated me like this, but he crossed the line with that!”

“You should relax a little bit. You’re hurt.” He put one of his hands over hers. “We can kill him later.”

“So are you! You’re hurt too!”

“Less so. You look like you got stabbed in what, the neck?”

She lowered her head and sat back on her heels, muttering, “neck and heart, and it wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t shot me.”

He reached forward and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “It doesn’t matter whether or not it would’ve happened. You’re alive, and I’m alive, and we’ve found each other again, and that’s enough, isn’t it?”


End file.
